Rich Cho named new Portland GM

Thunder assistant GM Rich Cho will be the next general manager of the Trail Blazers, The  Oregonian reports.

Cho is/was OKC’s cap and contract expert. He was responsible for contract negotiations (well done on KD, Rich!), salary cap and Collective Bargaining Agreement matters, player contracts and all other player personnel issues.

Cho has been with the franchise for 11 years and eight as assistant GM. He is a native of the Pacific Northwest (worked at Boeing in Seattle, degrees from Washington State and Pepperdine) and likely wanted to go back home. Oh, and probably liked the fact he’s going to be a GM of an NBA team.

And not a bad one at that. The Blazers have a quality roster intact, a star player in Brandon Roy and a great coach. The downside is a potentially crappy ownership group that basically ran Kevin Pritchard and Tom Penn out of town despite success on the floor.

Cho interviewed with the team last week in Las Vegas and  will be named today.

Obviously best wishes and congrats to Rich, but at the same time, here’s to sucking. Or at least to building a roster that can’t match up with the Thunder. Hint: trade Nic Batum.